
4 o 













<^>^._^-% ^^^ / 















GODWARD 



RECORD OF RELIGIOUS PROGRESS 



BV 

PAUL CARUS 



God leadeth doNVDi^to Hell and bringeth 
up again.— Tobit, xiii. 2. 



CHICAGO 

THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY 

London Agents: 

KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUEBNER & CO. 

1898 



.04 Qi 



1 



S58S 



Copyright, 1898 

By the open COURT PUBLISHING CO. 

CHICAGO 




TWO COPIES S£GiiV£i;. 
^"«i copy. 



preface^ 



FROM my childhood I was devout and 
pious ; my faith was as resolute as that 
of Simon whom, for his firmness, Christ called 
the rock of His church. When growing up 
I decided to devote myself as a missionary 
to the cause of Christianity. But alas ! on in- 
quiring into the foundations of the fortress 
which I was going to defend, I found the en- 
tire structure undermined. My despair turned 
into sadness, my exasperation into irony ; I 
grew an unbeliever ^nd scorned Christianity. 
Yet in the depfhs of my soul I still remained 
thoroughly religious ; I soon aroused myself 
and gathered together the fragments of the 
wreck I had suffered, for my heart still clung to 
its lost treasures. Thus I began to formulate in 
strictly scientific terms a religion that should be 



4 PREFACE. 

based, not upon belief, but upon the well-ascer- 
tained experiences of the human race alone ; 
and to my surprise I found that the main truths 
of the old faith remained the same, — only what 
I had received in my childhood in the garb of 
parables, as allegories and symbols, I now 
learned to formulate with scientific precision. 
The letter was gone, — gone beyond the hope of 
ever being redeemed, — but the spirit remained. 
The sentiment and the moral aspiration were 
upon the whole the same ; but what I had seen 
formerly as through a glass darkly I now saw 
face to face. Thus I retinrned through a period 
of negativism and unbelief to a new position of 
affirmation, which, broader in its scope and 
resting on a solider foundation, comprised under 
an evolutionary aspect the truths of both former 
positions. 

Nothing of the scientific rigor of criticism 
which characterizes the period of negation has 
been surrendered, and yet all the hopes con- 
tained in the religious faith of my childhood 
have found their fulfilment. 

How many are the hearts that investigate like 



PREFACE. 5 

me ! How many are they, who having turned 
doubters, have ever since remained agnostics 
and never even attempted to regain a position of 
affirmation ! They have criticised and con- 
demned. Having taken offence at the errors 
of the letter in its literal significance, they have 
rejected with the letter the spirit ! 

These poems and the conditions under which 
they were written at different periods of life are 
not artificial products of a poetic imagination, 
but genuine, instantaneous photographs of the 
soul's attitude in successive stages of its relig- 
ious development. May they prove helpful to 
others who are travelling on the same path ! 



Confidence in Go&. 



HTHE WORLD is void of rest 
* And stormy as the seas 
Whose waves so turbulent 

Are moved by every breeze ; 
They swell, they break, they roar 

And never are at ease. 

But midst the foamy surge 
There towers a mighty rock ; 

The billows dash around ; 

Yet, though they storm and mock, 

The rock withstands their scorn, 
Not moved by any shock. 

Thus in this turbid world 

Firm stands God's Name and Word. 
My heart knew not of rest ; 

Through storm and mist it erred, 
Until it refuge found 

Here, like a frightened bird. 

7 



CONFIDENCE IN GOD. 

Here is security, 

Here truth and hope and peace. 
Then let the billows roar 

And let the surge increase : 
Here, on the rock we find 

From all distress release. 

The troubles of this life 

With firmness I defy. 
My soul and heart rely 

On God, and, when I die, 
He will my faith and hope 

With fulness justify. 



Ube Minb /IDan* 



The existence of God is self-evident like daylight 

A MADMAN in the street 
Cries out " There is no light ! 
The wretch lacks in himself 
The faculty of sight. 

He is not blind by birth ; 

He longed some years ago 
By reason to conceive 

Light and its fiery glow. 

His eyes were sharp and clear, 
Nothing in them was ill : 

He saw God's lustrous sun, 
And yet he doubted still. 

He peered into the glare 

Of brightest solar light, 
Until his eyes had lost 

The faculty of sight. 



lO THE BLIND MAN. 

No peradventure now 
His unbelief can stay 

For blindness deeply veils 
The glamour of the day. 

Despairingly he cries, 
" Ah, who can now resist 

The truth so manifest 
That light does not exist ! 

" And even if you prove 

That there exists some light, 

I won't believe ; I have 
Experienced, I am right." 

Thus rushing through the streets 
He ceases not to bawl, 

" The sun does not exist ; 
There is no light at all." 



XTbe jfttan 



A FRIAR, still in youth, 
Enters the abbot's cell ; 
He modestly begins 
His misery to tell 
In hope confession will 

Insurgent doubts dispel : 
" Despite my fasts and prayer 
With me no peace doth dwell." 

The old man kindly looks 

In his repentant face. 
Quoth he, " Thou must believe 

In God and in His grace ! " 
** Ah, father, that I could 

These thronging doubts efface, 
And simply as a child 

The hope of Christ embrace. 

My conscience nevermore 
From sin can find release. 

The more I ponder them. 

The more my doubts increase. 



12 THE FRIAR. 

Oh, to have faith in God ! 

Oh, that this pain would cease ! 
Alas ! Is there no truth, 

And holdeth life no peace ? " 

Old tomes on musty shelves 
Are ranged the cloister round. 

Their authors anxiously- 
Had sought truth's depths to sound, 

In vain ! The mystery 
Is none the less profound. 

Now, through the books, methinks. 
Compassion did resound. 

The abbot wistfully 

Gazed on him in his pain. 
A silence long and sad 

Did all his heart explain ; 
But in his thoughtful eyes 

Was writ this doleful strain : 
" Thou look'st for peace and truth 

In this our world in vain." 



XTbe Gospel 



I HEARD in Christmas time, 
Mingled with merry chime 
Of bells, Gospel proclaim 
The Saviour's holy name ; 
Who, by the Father sent, 
Victoriously went 
Into this wretched life 
To carry out our strife ; 
Whose blessed blood redeems 
From sin and Satan's schemes. 
I heard the Christmas bell, 
I heard the Gospel well, 
My eye grew dark and dim. 
The song of Cherubim 
I sadly listened to — 
Oh, would that it were true ! 



13 



BcMncc. 



Difficile est parodiam non scribere. 

T I FT up your eyes, ye heads of brass ; 
*— ' Ye skulls of iron, yield ! 
For superstition soon will pass, 
Critique is in the field. 

Critique is like the morning star 

Which ushers in the day, 
Shines on the march and guides from far 

Truth's champions in the fray. 

Then fear not, faint not, halt not now, 
The cause of Truth is strong. 

To Truth shall every creature bow 
And sing the triumph song. 

Illumined are the heads of brass. 

The skulls of iron yield ; 
For superstition soon will pass : 

The Truth must win the field. 



14 



Ipantbetsm^ 



\1 /"HO has created with a power almighty 
" " The golden stars there in the skies ? 
Who orders them with such a lustrous 
splendor 
At their appointed time to rise ? 

Who did assign their spheres to all the 
planets 

And this our earth, who has it wrought ? — 
No Deity, created by our Fancy, 

Produced these worlds all out of naught. 

No one has made by spell the earth and 
heavens, 

No wizardlike magician god, 
Whose government is a continued marvel, 

Whose wilful deeds are queer and odd. 

The laws of Nature are not like ukases. 
That human monarchs may proclaim. 

No supernatural exterior ruler 

Has shaped the world in wondrous frame. 

IS 



1 6 PANTHEISM. 

Law dwells within as features uniformal : 
There's naught beyond and naught be- 
hind ; 
And from within the sentient soul-life 
blossoms 
Developing the human mind 

There is no Matter as a crude material ; 

Nor Force abstractly does exist. 
Both are united like man's soul and body ! 

And through each other they subsist. 

For Universe is the eternal Cosmos 
Not governed by a god or elf ; 

Its life springs forth from its own vital 
sources, 
And self-creating moves itself 1 



H Bew IReltglon, 



THE Creeds of old are crumbling ; 
And were their revelation 
The only hope in living 

Life would be desolation. 
But lo ! a new religion 

Bursts from the germs decaying ; 
A new faith in our bosoms 
Is growing, light-displaying. 

Great truths with broader outlook 

New missions have created. 
By purified Religion 

Our souls are elevated. 
New aims, new hopes, new doctrines, 

Old prophecies fulfilling ! 
And through our hearts is rapture 

Of progress warmly thrilling. 

We do not combat freedom 
Of art, nor that of science. 

2 17 



l8 A NEW RELIGION. 

Nay, both with our religion 
Are joined in firm alliance. 

Though high, our aspiration 
Is yet concrete and real. 

To render life more noble 
Is our sublime ideal. 



Of this denomination 

Are they, in life's confusion, 
Who further human progress 

And sweep away illusion ; 
Who have ideals dearer 

Than self and self-existence, 
And love them, although knowing 

Their vast, enormous distance. 

Thinkers who muse and ponder, 

Instructors theoretic ; 
And poets whose ideas 

Are radiantly prophetic ; 
The warrior, who for Freedom 

Fights and for Freedom dieth ; 
The great, whose noble fortune 

With their souls' greatness vieth ; 



A NEW RELIGION. 19 

The hand, who with heart's trouble 

For wife and children toileth ; 
The man who doth his duty 

E'en if his fate him foileth ; 
And he, who kindly comforts 

The sick, who gladly shareth 
His bread with his poor neighbor, 

Our badge and symbol beareth. 



Xtgbt ariO TLvntb, 



T IGHT is the symbol of truth and as 
•■— ' Deity proves everlasting ; 

But our daylight on earth passingly fadeth 
away. 
Truth in itself is eternal ; we rightly revere 
it as holy ; 
But in the spirit of man quite problematic 
is Truth. 



20 



Sonnet6» 



1. IRetlectlon. 



A LAS ! Reflection cruelly destroys 
^*^ Our Fancy's dreamy castles built in 
air, 
Which, though not real, are so lovely fair ! 
Imagination luringly decoys 

Into her paradise with glistening toys, 
Until Reflection roughly comes to tear 
Those fair illusions ; — and she leaves us 
bare, 
Leaves us deprived of all our childhood 
joys. 

Yet she arouses from fictitious dreams ! 
If the destruction of our idols bitter, 
If very ruthless, pitiless it seems : 

Yet is it salutary ; the false glitter 
Is only lost ; for life we are much fitter. 
Since Fancy's fogs are cleared by Reason's 
beams. 

21 



2, f Dols. 

nPHE charming fairy-tales, which gently 
•^ soothe 

Our childhood's easy griefs, must melt 

away ; 
And sad Reality will soon dismay 
The bright phantasmal Idols of our youth. 

But from them our Ideals spring, in sooth. 

The childish frolic shall the man display. 

As fruit grows, whilst the blossom must 

decay, 

Thus from romantic errors springs the 

truth. 

But when the creed of Christianity 

Breaks down, it merely is the husk, 
which shows 
The evil fate of transient vanity. 

Out of the bursting germ the fruit-tree 

grows. 
And Idols of religion will disclose 
The high Ideal of Humanity. 

22 



3. Zbc $tar0. 



YE golden stars in silent holy night 
The day breaks ; and in mighty com- 
petition 
Your brilliance dims mid rapid demoli- 
tion. 
Ye and your splendor, beautiful and bright, 

Ye fade away in his victorious light. 
Thus dies romance ; poetic superstition 
Of darker ages suffers abolition. 

In light ye die, light-bearers of the night. 

And yet ye are not dead, ye golden stars ; 

Ye are still living in the brighter ray ; 
'Tis not your light the glorious sunshine 
mars ; 

It is your mere appearance. True, your 

beauty 
Is lost, a sacrifice of faithful duty ; 
But beauty rises new in dawn of day. 

23 



4. XTbc ITDeal. 



BE not afraid lest in this world the Ideal 
Should disappear, or like a flower 
fade ; 
For she is not mere Fancy's fickle shade. 
She is a glowing presence, true and real. 

Still firmly an alliance hymeneal 
Joins her to Human Progress, as a maid 
Is wedded to a hero, whom his blade 

Protects ; thus faithfully he shields the 
Ideal. 

Wondrously from this bridal union springs 
The life which, breathing through the 

human race, 
In ardent youth shines forth from every 
face. 

It lends to the inventor fancy's wings, 
And stirs the poet's heart, who gayly sings 
The Ideal's beauty and the Ideal's grace, 
24 



(Bo&war^» 



IVJEARER, my God, to thee, 
^ ^ Nearer alway ; 
E'en though thou other be 

Than prophets say; 
Other thou art, but higher, 
Bidding our souls aspire, 

Godward alway. 

Doubt comes from God, in sooth, 
Though conquering creeds ; 

Doubt prompts our search for truth 
And higher leads. 

Who on doubt's path ne'er trod, 

Ne'er saw the face of God ; 
Doubt truthward speeds. 

Science the burning bush 

Where God doth dwell ! 
Truth and its onward rush 

Nothing can quell. 
God is the truth that guides, 
Heaven where love abides ; 

Sin's curse is Hell. 



26 GOD WARD. 

God the eternal cause 

Of truth and right ; 
Oneness of cosmic laws, 

Reason's true light. 
God, though nowhere confined, 
Yet in the human mind 

Showeth his might. 

God is man's truthward call, 

Noblest desire. 
He's in life cosmical, 

Love's holy fire. 
Thou who art All in All 
God superpersonal, 

Lead thou us higher. 



20 -i"^ 


















V -^ " - " ^^ "v- \^ 








OOBBSBROS. ^\ ^^rf^^ ^S _^ 

LIBRARY BINDING , <b ^^ o TZ^^^KVnV * \>"^ 



<^JJAN 7 3 G 

1 ST. AUGUSTINE 
' I ^^^ PLA. 




32084 




